In the field of computer-implemented games, there are many technical challenges facing the designer of such games when considering how the user interface is to be controlled in the context of computer devices available to play the game.
One technical challenge can involve allowing a game to be fun and compelling even when there is limited display resource available, such as when a game is being played on a smartphone, tablet or other minicomputer. Another significant challenge is that of user engagement. Engagement involves designing gameplay to be engaging and rewarding to players. This typically requires games to be easily understood at their simplest or introductory levels, providing rewarding gameplay with quite simple game mechanics, but becoming progressively more challenging so that players are not bored, but remain engaged and develop rewarding skills. Effective engagement requires various forms of feedback to reinforce player sense of success and accomplishment.
There are therefore many technical challenges when designing computer implemented games, particularly in providing a challenge to a player that is engaging and rewarding so as to provoke repeat play. This particularly may, but not exclusively, apply to “casual games”.
There exists different kinds of “bubble shooter” games. These games provide a static bubble graph in the game board on a display of a computer device. The game objective is to remove bubbles to clear the way through the graph, and to do this the player operates a player object launcher that can shoot player objects into the game board. When the launched player object reaches an object in the player graph, it “sticks” to it, and if it hits a game object of the same type as the player object, which already has another game object of the same characteristic adjacent to it, a 3-match condition is created and the three game objects disappear from the game board. A match could have more than three game objects in it. A match can be associated with a certain score.
A situation can occur in such games where there are no suitable sets or combinations of game objects in the player graph which could be shot either to move a step forward to the game objective, or to increase a player's score. A player's score can, for example, be increased when a match condition is made. This can be frustrating for a player and can cause players to become disengaged with the game.